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The Mad Tom and Hellgie: Smallmouth Killers (Guest Article)
by Craig DeFronzo (Earthworm 77)

Case Baits
The Fall fishing season for me was aimless. September 11th had all but sapped the wind from my normally gusty sails as far as enthusiasm went. Besides being caught up in what was happening and working countless hours, I simply lost my desire to persue little green fish altogether. Despite my time away from the water and my boat, I still managed to get by and I found myself hooked up with Frank Cox, Brian Wright, and Charlie Case. These guys represent Case Baits and they more than went out of their way for me in getting me set up with large batches of Case Madtoms and Hellgies. I received a package from Frank Cox in Sept. that contained the famous Madtom in about 8 colors and two sizes of Hellgie in more colors than I imagined.

At first glance, I was quite impressed with the baits. This was the first time I spied any bait even resembling a madtom and the hellgies were dead on facsimilies of the real life creature. As I perused the different colors, I imagined all the ways I would fish these bad boys. I immediately took a liking to smoke purple, rootbeer, green pumpkin, and watermelon. I knew these colors would become favorites to me and the bass.

The Madtom is a natural on a small ballhead jig. Bounced along the bottom, there is no doubt as to how effective it could be. My imagination wandered a bit as I dreamed of it on a split shot rig, mojo rig, drop shot rig...but I had a flash in my brain and saw myself jerking the bait along Texas style and weightless. The Madtom is about 3 inches long and looks like a baby catfish. It has excellent detail right down to its pointy pectoral fins and whiskers. It is far superior to any sculpin like imitator I've ever seen. I made the best of my time once I got back on the water. Although it sure felt strange to get back out and a feeling of guilt did come upon me more than once, I managed to fish with the bait about 8 times until ice and snow stopped me. I got a quick lesson in how effective this bait can be by taking it to my proving grounds.....a small lake loaded with largemouth bass.

My initial introduction to Madtom 101 was with a drop shot rig. I nose hooked the bait on an Owner size 1 dropshot hook and used a 1/8oz Owner dropshot clip weight. The response was almost immediate as the bass just hammered my offering. By trips end, I was amazed how durable this little sucker was. I had taken 16 bass on my first Madtom and it was still in fishable condition. I wanted to try more things with this bait so I switched to a modified Mojo rig which I add a small 6mm glass bead to. I started throwing shallow and again success. A decent workout with this rig had the wheels turning in my head. I figured that although the water was cool, I was taking fish shallow. I wanted to try other things, but I was losing daylight and would have to wait for another day.

I have a few local ponds near my house that serve as testing areas for new jig and spinnerbait ideas as well as for my handpours. I recently recieved another package from Frank Cox that should have been labeled TOP SECRET. In it were some experimental colors and the new Madtom line up. It stayed on my dining room table for a few days and one morning as I was on my way out the door to test some new finesse pours, the box caught my eye. I opened it and chuckled to myself as I picked out a handfull of Red Shad 'Toms. I was about to realize the effectiveness of jerking the Tom.

My tests on the handpours went well and I found myself standing at the waters edge satisfied with my R&D work for the day. I couldn't leave the bass biting so I picked up a Tom and rigged it on my size 2 EWG hook. I immediatley got a strike on the first cast but dropped the fish. A few more lost fish promtped me to examine the bait a little. The small hook I was using couldn't penetrate through the broad shoulders of the bait. I merely nose hooked it. This proved to be the right decision as I hooked up on my first cast.. The bait has a bit of weight to it and tends to sloppily flip over on itself, an action the fish didn't seem to mind. I ebbed this action by clipping off the pectoral fins. In a little over an hour I counted 23 bass on the Madtom....and all on the initial bait. Did I mention this thing is durable???

Since, I have repeated my success with this bait is several other colors. I think that twitching this bait is a deadly presentation and I can't remember a bass hitting a soft jerk harder than the way they blew up on the Madtom. Madtoms are available inwatermelon, watermelon/red flake, black, smoke purple, green pumkin, rootbeer, gold flake, mustard chart., and pumpkin. My secret package contained Red shad, pearl white, and bubblegum. I hope Charlie Case considers a black blue Tom because that would be a sure fire killer!!!!

I had to wait till the end of October to finally get out to my favorite smallmouth creek. I wade fish here and normally do well late in the season with Slug Go's, Beetle Spins, Small jigs, and Wee Craws. On this day, I rigged a drop shot rig with a mojo weight. This would prevent the weight from getting hung up in the cracks and rocks. I put the hook about 8 inches above the weight and nose hooked a small hellgie on a size 4 split shot hook. I flipped the bait into a small pool and started to methodically hop it back when my cast was freight trained by a 15" smallie that made a quick run towards me and put on an aerial show that left me ducking as it just about jumped over my shoulder. NICE!!!!

I went on to have a very productive day with this set up. In fact, I didn't fish another bait the whole day and the action was hot and heavy on the 'shot rig. I see that the Hellgie would be a natural rigged behind a small jig spinner like a Beetle spin. I haven't tried it yet, but there is not doubt it would work. I managed to catch fish on these baits last year unitl the water dipped into the low 40's. Of course, the hellgie is quite at home on a small jighead. It looks so natural it is no wonder why it is effective.

On an interesting note, I managed to take some Brown and Rainbow trout on the Hellgie. It is such a good little bait. I give these baits a solid recomendation. They will see a lot of duty for me this coming season. Hellgies are available in two sizes. The 3.25" model comes in yellow, smoke purple, black, pumpkin, natural, and green pumpkin. There is also a mini 2" version that comes in smoke red/gold flake, chart. pumpkin, pumpkin, black, and chameleon. Give Charlie a shout at www.madtoms.com and tell him I sent you!!! You will be very happy with his baits, I assure you.